1. Technical Field
This invention relates to munitions, and more particularly to a high precision fuze mechanism for electronically generating a firing signal to detonate a hand grenade through the use of a magnetic signal generator incorporated in the fuze mechanism.
2. Discussion
Present day hand grenades typically incorporate pyrotechnic fuze mechanisms. These fuze mechanisms employ a fuze element that begins burning when the safety pin of the grenade is pulled from the grenade. At the end of a delay period the burning fuze element ignites a pyrotechnic element which in turn detonates the primary explosive compound of the grenade.
Such present day fuze mechanisms for grenades suffer from a number of drawbacks. For one, the delay time before detonation cannot be controlled with excellent accuracy and repeatability. Delay times typically fluctuate +/- about one to two seconds. Another drawback is that the performance of the fuze element degrades over time. This can cause further variations in the accuracy of the delay time implemented before the grenade is detonated.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide an electronically controlled fuze mechanism which would provide much greater accuracy and reliability in implementing the time delay before detonating the grenade. The difficulty with this has been the lack of electrical power available for powering a suitable electronic control circuit. With other forms of munitions that are launched from sea or air, often environmental elements such as wind are used to assist in generating electrical power for the various electronic components of the fuze mechanism of the munition. With a hand grenade, however, such environmental elements as wind force are not present in sufficient degree to reliably assist in providing power for a manually thrown hand grenade.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a high precision fuze mechanism for a munition, such as a hand grenade, which incorporates a reliable, relatively low cost means for generating electrical power for a brief period of time, to thereby enable an electronic control system to be employed to control more precisely the time delay period prior to detonating the grenade.
It would also be advantageous to provide a fuze mechanism for a hand grenade which incorporates an electronic control circuit capable of implementing one or more time delay periods, through the use of small, lightweight electronic components, before the control circuit causes detonation of the grenade.
Still further, it would be advantageous to provide a high precision fuze mechanism for a hand grenade which incorporates an electrical impulse generator, which is only activated upon removal of a safety pin of the grenade and releasing of the grenade, and which generates sufficient electrical power to power an electronic control circuit for a short period of time, which may then be used to detonate the grenade.
Still further, it would be advantageous to provide a high precision fuze mechanism for a hand grenade which includes an electrical power generator and an electronic control circuit for implementing a precisely controlled time delay before causing detonation of the grenade, and which does not significantly increase the size, weight or overall cost of the hand grenade.
Furthermore, it would be advantageous to provide a high precision fuze mechanism for a hand grenade which includes an electrical power generator for powering an electronic control circuit, where the power generator is activated as soon as a safety pin of the grenade is withdrawn and the grenade is released, and which is not affected by the velocity with which the grenade is thrown or the orientation of the grenade through its trajectory or the position in which it lands, or by other environmental elements, before it is detonated.